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First
North Carolina Awards
Dinner
Hotel Sir Walter, Raleigh, May 25, 1964, 7 p.m.
William D. Snider, presiding
Invocation - Henry Belk
Origin of the Awards Commission - William D. Snider
Medallion Designer, Paul Manship - Robert Lee Humber
Presentation of Awards - Governor Terry Sanford
Following dinner, Governor and Mrs. Sanford
will receive at the Executive Mansion
North Carolina Awards Commission
William D. Snider, Greensboro, chairman
Henry Belk, Goldsboro
Gordon Cleveland, Chapel Hill
Gilbert Stephenson, Pendleton
Richard Walser, Raleigh
John Couch
Science
John N. Couch receives a North Carolina Award for his distinguished findings in the field of science. Kenan Professor of Botany in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he stirred great excitement among microbiologists in 1947 with the discovery of a new family Actinoplanaceae, providing a breakthrough, after a century of search, for a connecting link between bacteria and fungi. Additionally, his study of a tiny fungus which lives only as a parasite of mosquito larvae has elicited the interest and material support of the National Institutes of Health, for it now appears that his efforts will resolve the enticing prospect of using this fungus as a practical means for the control of the mosquito. In recent months, his continuing work has attracted the attention of the National Science Foundation and the drug industry because it has brought to light the ability of the Actinoplanaceae to convert steroids and to produce antibiotics now so valuable to medical science. As a result of his researches, he has been accorded, throughout the world, most of the honors coveted by biologists, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences, of which he is one of few North Carolinians. Yet John N. Couch, even with these honors and the commercial value of his discoveries, has remained in the laboratory and the classroom: a teacher-scholar-scientist who, in his own words, prefers most to be "free to study" and to add to the "great storehouse of basic knowledge which, like money capital, can be drawn on when needed."
Inglish Fletcher
Literature
Inglis Fletcher is recipient of a North Carolina Award in recognition of her creative achievements in literature. Her famed Carolina Series, a succession of twelve novels beginning with Raleigh's Eden in 1940 and coming through Rogue's Harbor published only last February, has animated in glowing terms our early history. In a fashion denied the professional historian, these dozen romantic chronicles have popularized the exciting events of North Carolina's initial decades. Because of Mrs. Fletcher, no longer can it be said that our colonial and Revolutionary heroes are unknown; for, within the pages of her books, they have found a new life and a new grandeur. Though fiction is her province, the result of her total work has been to provide, during the last quarter century, a vivid accompaniment to the revival of interest in North Carolina history. Yet Inglis Fletcher has not been content merely to write historical novels. Twenty years ago she returned to live in the land of her Carolina ancestors, and here she has remained. When not reinvigorating the annals of the past, she has concerned herself with the preservation, restoration, and beautification of the often crumbling monuments of our heritage. Our strength, she once said, lies in our love and respect of the land. In the message of her books, and in her life, she has set a course worthy of emulation by her North Carolina neighbors.
John Morehead
Public Service
John Motley Morehead is presented a North Carolina Award, as a son of the state now living outside it, in unequal return for his wisdom, his generosity, and the magnitude of his public service. By native genius and a lifetime of constructive enterprise, he has converted resources of nature and business into an ever-multiplying benefaction to posterity. His talents as scientist, engineer, and manager have found expression in a variety of corporate enterprises and have taken him to many foreign countries. He has been called into myriad avenues of private and civic work, including government service: in the crisis of world war, as a member of the War Industries Board; and in the crisis of world economic depression, as United States Minister to Sweden. But the medium of his rise to industrial statesmanship was the organization that resulted from his own discovery of a commercial means of producing calcium carbide. Under his leadership the Carbide Corporation became one of the foremost industrial cor- porations in the world, a source of economic strength and abundance in the uses of peace, and a bulward of the nation's defense in time of war. Then, in his harvest years, he looked to his state and its university. In an edifice dedicated to art, science, and philanthropy he established the foundation that bears his name, his faith, and his fortune. Together they assure that the constructive impress of his life upon his world will be but a beginning of the work to be fulfilled by future generations.
Clarence Poe
Public Service
Clarence Poe is presented a North Carolina Award, as a citizen of the state, in acknowledgment of his pre-eminent accomplishments in public service. Although agriculture has been, and still is, his primary interest, he has played a prominent role in the fields of literature, economics, education, and social service. Actively identified within the state with various organizations devoted to the advancement of dairying and forestry, of hospital care, of national defense, and of numerous other aspects of our region, he has, on the national level, been connected with many groups seeking improvements in, for example, farm tenancy and rural electrification. Five colleges and universities have recognized him with honorary degrees. Though associated with the Progressive Farmer since 1899, he has found time to write a number of books, the most recent his autobiographical My First 80 Years. In all fields of public service, his devotion and leadership have been social and inspirational as well as economic and material. In 1963, he listed seven qualities of our Southern people at their best: courtesy, hospitality, regard for religion, love of country life, good will between races, growing acceptance of universal education, and an unusual freedom from money-worship as a major life aim. Clarence Poe's whole career has been a torch signaling the way and beckoning his fellowmen on to these objectives.
Francis Speight
Fine Arts
Francis Speight receives a North Carolina Award for fine arts not merely because his work as a painter has brought honor to the State, but because-through the genius of his art-he has given joy to thousands who have seen his canvases, and will continue to give joy to thousands in the future. Although his work is based in realism touched with impressionism, Francis Speight is very much his own master. The spirit which permeates his pictures, the superb technique, are his alone. The sharp, hard brightness of an early spring day might belong to all the early spring days that ever were. The first faint excitement is there. The light and shadow, the earth itself, has an almost invisible pulse-beat that seemingly will beat faster. On the other hand, a winter scene, with no human figure in it, suggests all the loneliness a human being feels. The railroad tracks that thread the snow give an inkling of the magic and the glamour of far-off places. Almost, the viewer can hear the echo of the train whistle from across the land in the deeps of the night. Such paintings as these can be seen in most of the great museums of the continent. Yet, several years ago after more than four decades away, this native of Bertie County returned to North Carolina. Following his long association with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he became artist-in-residence at East Carolina College, where he imparts to a new generation his technical skills, and gives, in his wisdom, each student the freedom to see for himself and to be himself. In Greenville he still paints, recording on canvas his vision of the world around him.

First
North Carolina Awards
Dinner
Hotel Sir Walter, Raleigh, May 25, 1964, 7 p.m.
William D. Snider, presiding
Invocation - Henry Belk
Origin of the Awards Commission - William D. Snider
Medallion Designer, Paul Manship - Robert Lee Humber
Presentation of Awards - Governor Terry Sanford
Following dinner, Governor and Mrs. Sanford
will receive at the Executive Mansion
North Carolina Awards Commission
William D. Snider, Greensboro, chairman
Henry Belk, Goldsboro
Gordon Cleveland, Chapel Hill
Gilbert Stephenson, Pendleton
Richard Walser, Raleigh
John Couch
Science
John N. Couch receives a North Carolina Award for his distinguished findings in the field of science. Kenan Professor of Botany in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he stirred great excitement among microbiologists in 1947 with the discovery of a new family Actinoplanaceae, providing a breakthrough, after a century of search, for a connecting link between bacteria and fungi. Additionally, his study of a tiny fungus which lives only as a parasite of mosquito larvae has elicited the interest and material support of the National Institutes of Health, for it now appears that his efforts will resolve the enticing prospect of using this fungus as a practical means for the control of the mosquito. In recent months, his continuing work has attracted the attention of the National Science Foundation and the drug industry because it has brought to light the ability of the Actinoplanaceae to convert steroids and to produce antibiotics now so valuable to medical science. As a result of his researches, he has been accorded, throughout the world, most of the honors coveted by biologists, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences, of which he is one of few North Carolinians. Yet John N. Couch, even with these honors and the commercial value of his discoveries, has remained in the laboratory and the classroom: a teacher-scholar-scientist who, in his own words, prefers most to be "free to study" and to add to the "great storehouse of basic knowledge which, like money capital, can be drawn on when needed."
Inglish Fletcher
Literature
Inglis Fletcher is recipient of a North Carolina Award in recognition of her creative achievements in literature. Her famed Carolina Series, a succession of twelve novels beginning with Raleigh's Eden in 1940 and coming through Rogue's Harbor published only last February, has animated in glowing terms our early history. In a fashion denied the professional historian, these dozen romantic chronicles have popularized the exciting events of North Carolina's initial decades. Because of Mrs. Fletcher, no longer can it be said that our colonial and Revolutionary heroes are unknown; for, within the pages of her books, they have found a new life and a new grandeur. Though fiction is her province, the result of her total work has been to provide, during the last quarter century, a vivid accompaniment to the revival of interest in North Carolina history. Yet Inglis Fletcher has not been content merely to write historical novels. Twenty years ago she returned to live in the land of her Carolina ancestors, and here she has remained. When not reinvigorating the annals of the past, she has concerned herself with the preservation, restoration, and beautification of the often crumbling monuments of our heritage. Our strength, she once said, lies in our love and respect of the land. In the message of her books, and in her life, she has set a course worthy of emulation by her North Carolina neighbors.
John Morehead
Public Service
John Motley Morehead is presented a North Carolina Award, as a son of the state now living outside it, in unequal return for his wisdom, his generosity, and the magnitude of his public service. By native genius and a lifetime of constructive enterprise, he has converted resources of nature and business into an ever-multiplying benefaction to posterity. His talents as scientist, engineer, and manager have found expression in a variety of corporate enterprises and have taken him to many foreign countries. He has been called into myriad avenues of private and civic work, including government service: in the crisis of world war, as a member of the War Industries Board; and in the crisis of world economic depression, as United States Minister to Sweden. But the medium of his rise to industrial statesmanship was the organization that resulted from his own discovery of a commercial means of producing calcium carbide. Under his leadership the Carbide Corporation became one of the foremost industrial cor- porations in the world, a source of economic strength and abundance in the uses of peace, and a bulward of the nation's defense in time of war. Then, in his harvest years, he looked to his state and its university. In an edifice dedicated to art, science, and philanthropy he established the foundation that bears his name, his faith, and his fortune. Together they assure that the constructive impress of his life upon his world will be but a beginning of the work to be fulfilled by future generations.
Clarence Poe
Public Service
Clarence Poe is presented a North Carolina Award, as a citizen of the state, in acknowledgment of his pre-eminent accomplishments in public service. Although agriculture has been, and still is, his primary interest, he has played a prominent role in the fields of literature, economics, education, and social service. Actively identified within the state with various organizations devoted to the advancement of dairying and forestry, of hospital care, of national defense, and of numerous other aspects of our region, he has, on the national level, been connected with many groups seeking improvements in, for example, farm tenancy and rural electrification. Five colleges and universities have recognized him with honorary degrees. Though associated with the Progressive Farmer since 1899, he has found time to write a number of books, the most recent his autobiographical My First 80 Years. In all fields of public service, his devotion and leadership have been social and inspirational as well as economic and material. In 1963, he listed seven qualities of our Southern people at their best: courtesy, hospitality, regard for religion, love of country life, good will between races, growing acceptance of universal education, and an unusual freedom from money-worship as a major life aim. Clarence Poe's whole career has been a torch signaling the way and beckoning his fellowmen on to these objectives.
Francis Speight
Fine Arts
Francis Speight receives a North Carolina Award for fine arts not merely because his work as a painter has brought honor to the State, but because-through the genius of his art-he has given joy to thousands who have seen his canvases, and will continue to give joy to thousands in the future. Although his work is based in realism touched with impressionism, Francis Speight is very much his own master. The spirit which permeates his pictures, the superb technique, are his alone. The sharp, hard brightness of an early spring day might belong to all the early spring days that ever were. The first faint excitement is there. The light and shadow, the earth itself, has an almost invisible pulse-beat that seemingly will beat faster. On the other hand, a winter scene, with no human figure in it, suggests all the loneliness a human being feels. The railroad tracks that thread the snow give an inkling of the magic and the glamour of far-off places. Almost, the viewer can hear the echo of the train whistle from across the land in the deeps of the night. Such paintings as these can be seen in most of the great museums of the continent. Yet, several years ago after more than four decades away, this native of Bertie County returned to North Carolina. Following his long association with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he became artist-in-residence at East Carolina College, where he imparts to a new generation his technical skills, and gives, in his wisdom, each student the freedom to see for himself and to be himself. In Greenville he still paints, recording on canvas his vision of the world around him.